All posts tagged ‘the Revenge of the Geeks’

Still from the French documentary The Revenge of the Geeks (La revanche des Geeks)

Parlez-vous geek? Avez-vous nerd? Es-tu un dork?

Last year, GeekDad editor Ken Denmead and GeekDad contributor Ethan Gilsdorf were approached by French filmmakers to be interviewed for a comprehensive documentary about the history of geek culture, La revanche des Geeks. Translated: The Revenge of the Geeks.

Ken was interviewed as he drove around the Bay Area in his car, reminiscing about his geeky past. Ethan was filmed in a Parisian game shop nattering on about playing Dungeons & Dragons and obsessing about Tolkien. Other American geek experts appeared on camera, including writer, designer, and researcher Jason Tocci and American Nerd author Ben Nugent, as well as French commentators.

GeekDads Ken Denmead and Ethan Gilsdorf speaking geek.

Written a directed by French filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Péretié, the show finally aired last fall on the French TV network Arte. The French/German co-production also aired on German TV. In a weird distribution deal, the film also appeared on some U.S. flights as inflight entertainment for a few weeks.

Alas, the movie never aired in U.S. Until now. Sort of.

Now the movie, which covers the history of geek culture from pocket protector-wearing engineering nerds of the 1960s through D&D, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fandom, can be viewed on Vimeo for free. The only bummer: It’s only in French, and the English-speakers are dubbed in French. But if you listen closely, you can hear what Ken and Ethan have to say, as well as the other américains, behind all that French blah-de-blah.

Dodgeball anyone?

Still, you can get the gist, in and around the clips of holy relics from the history of our peoples, including Freaks and Geeks, Tron, Revenge of the Nerds, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Weird Al’s song White & Nerdy.

Bonus nerd content: the filmmakers were able to get as the narrator of La revanche des Geeks one Pierre Hatet, the French voice of Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future.